I have too many DVDs here that I can’t even figure out what the hell to watch. I got a few new horror releases from Hong Kong this month and I have stuff that has been sitting here for more than a year or two that I haven’t watched yet, so I figure I should just do a marathon of the horror movies. I always watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Halloween night, so I’ll fill the time until then with what I have, what I can find in Taipei video stores and DVD shops and maybe something downloaded if I really can’t find what I want that night…
#1 – 1408… It’s too bad that I remember this one being a lot more frightening than it was this time. I guess you can make a really good, scary movie and really freak out an audience, but it takes a lot more skill to make something that holds up to multiple viewings. 1408 was boring this second time around with nothing to really make me drop my popcorn. I still love both Stephen King and John Cusack, but kind of a disappointment to begin my marathon with.
#2 – The Shining… So my first movie was a disappointment so I figured I’d go with a tried and true scare the shit out of myself movie. I have seen The Shining at least 30 times (maybe more) and the second they enter than hotel I’m freaked out. I love when the kid is racing the hallways on his big wheel and or course Jack as a crazy bastard and Olive Oil screaming her face off at everything. I read the book one summer when I was young and loved how different, but still scary the book was, but I do love this movie. There’s nothing better than Jack and an Ax!
#3 – The Thing (2011)… This was cool! I barely remember the original so this was a great movie. Glad I saw it in the theater as it just gives it more impact. They did a great job making it look like the film was from the 1980′s and they relied on the story more than big actors which was good. I was pretty geared up for the whole movie, and I loved the extra footage during the end credits. They ended the movie in a great way, and then the epilogue after that tis to the old movie made it even better. Someone needs to learn from this movie how to make a good monster/alien movie where you don’t need torture and over the top kills. Just give us a creature and abunch of people who are not going to survive and I’m happy!
#4 – Tremors... What better combination can you have than massive underground slugs that burrow and eat people, Kevin Bacon as a redneck and the dad from Family ties as a crazy, gun toting survivalist? I worked in the movie theater when this movie came out years ago and I would watch as much of it as I could every night when I was working. The sequels get a little strange, but this one is a great Hollywood B-like movie that was and still is better than so much of the crap out there today. There is no way you wouldn’t want to have this movie in your collection.
#5 – Tales from the Crypt… I got the entire series of this from Hong Kong last month and it’s still cool. Watched a few episodes just to see if it was as dated as I thought it would be, but they are still cool stories. I love seeing a lot of stars in these cheesy little tales, but they were actually good horror. the Crypt Keeper still rocks and the best thing is I watched five episodes so far and I think there are still about 80 more to go!
#6 – Forest of Death / 森冤… What a disappointment! I ordered this special fro Hong Kong as I can’t get it here in Taiwan with English, and I finally get to watch it and it bored me to death! I love (see: absolutely, positively, head over heels in love with) Shu Qi and even she wasn’t much in the movie other than something to distract me frm the actual story. A forest in China where people go to kill themselves which is supposedly haunted and tries to keep people from leaving… good concept, but I seem to recall only ONE PERSON DIES in the movie. Add in Ekin Cheng, a cool HK star, who believes that plants can speak to you and tell you things that have happened. Put him together with Shu Qi’s detective trying to solve a rape/murder in the forest and you have… well… not much, which is sad. I was looking forward to this one (not just due to my love of Shu Qi) and it just didn’t deliver.
#7 – John Carpenter’s The Ward… Now the trailers, the box art and the concept for the movie made me really want to see it. Maybe it was nostalgia from the Nightmare on Elm Street to see a horror movie in an insane asylum again or just the hope that Carpenter can still pull it off… but I have to say, meh. I admit the whole movie had me a little on edge, and I liked the ideas behind it, but there were two things I just didn’t like… the killing were a little weak and made me think something strange was going on, and of course the ending SUCKED! If there was ever a cop out at the end of a horror movie it was this one. They’ve dine this ending before and it worked (the first time) and they did not need to do it again here. I’m amazed at how quickly the movie bottomed out at the end. Come on John… you can do so much better!
#8 – Dawn of the Dead... Too many disappointments so far in my marathon, so I went with another solid guarantee. I love both Dawn of the Dead movies, but the new one kicks ass more than The Walking Dead does. Zombies that can run… blood everywhere and even the dad from Modern Family! I really think the new version of this movie should be the standard for zombies movies now. The movie has everything you want right down to the very ending and the credits. Zombies from the first to the last minute. I love this movie. I haven’t seen any of the ones after this. I may go try to find Day of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, Survival of the Dead, Breakfast with the Dead and George Clooney vs. the Dead to complete the series.
Not a bad set of movies for the first seven nights. I plan on some kind of a marathon within a marathon this weekend or next. I have the entire run of Japanese Ring movies, the Asian Eye movies, plus the 28 Days/Weeks/Dresses set, the Resident Evil set, some cool Korean monster movies and even some good Japanese gore flicks like Tokyo Gore Police to keep me going. Not sure what to watch when I get back from the night markets tonight, but I have the original Amityville Horror, a Taiwanese horror movie titled Invitation Only and an 8 DVD set of Drive In horror movies beside the TV ready to go.
I’m going to give myself nightmares this month… I know it!
